How to Stop Drowning in Busy

I used to wear 80 hour weeks like a badge of honor until I realized I was running in place. That's what we're going to get into right now. Hey everybody, I'm Bill Gallagher, scaling coach and host of this Scaling Up Business podcast. We bring our show to you every week. We've got more than 650 episodes now and you'll find them all where we're getting this right now. So like subscribe all that or go, go to scalingcoach.com where you'll find downloads, tools, workshops, things like that. You can join one of our cohorts. You can get a free assessment of the growth possibilities the way we would see it for your business. All that more scalingcoach.com all right, so let's get into it. Listen, years ago I was running a jewelry company with my wife and really working hard to grow it and I was filling all my days. So I'd get up in the morning, I do a little bit of work, then we get the kids off to school. I may or may not work, workout, and then I'd put in maybe work till 7pm Then I'd go home and I do some more work. And then I do a little work on Saturday and Sunday as well. Before you know it, 80 hours is chewed up that I've spent on all kinds of time. And I'm not having always great time, family time, it's compromised. I'm missing some things or I'm going to a soccer game, but I'm looking at my device the whole time. My brain's not in the game. I remember I came home one day on the phone and I continued to be on the phone as the kids were running around. Some dinner was getting prepared or something like that. And I finally hung up the phone after resolving whatever it was that I was working on. And my wife looked to me and said coldly, look, if you're going to be on the phone, maybe you should just stay out. You're not really here. And I, I was crushed. Like, cut me deeply. Like, oh, I'm not actually really here, am I? So just bringing home and doing work at home doesn't have me be present in my marriage, in my family, doesn't have me be with the kids. I'm just at work, in their proximity, in their environment. And it caught me, it's almost amusing today. But at the time, oh, it cut me deeply. And I'm like, okay, I've got to figure out how to narrow things in and do that now. The other thing that happened is we Realized that we were supposed to take serious time off to travel with our kids, to do great, fun family things at some point, because we were entrepreneurs, we had our own business, and we could do things differently. We didn't have to be a slave to somebody else's schedule. Like, we could design it well, and it wasn't how it was going. And I had to shift the way that I operated as a leader to make a difference. And I've had to do the same kind of thing with many of the companies that I've coached. Not all successful. This is not so much a leadership shift, it's an identity shift. Right. The way that you see yourself as a human being constitutes your leadership and then affects the way you interact. So we want to shift the way you see yourself to move into some new territories that makes all the difference. So the first thing I had to figure out is that I was deeply embedded in everything. That meant that I hadn't delegated, I hadn't passed the baton. I still didn't trust people. I didn't give them permission. I hadn't developed them to trust themselves or to feel like it was okay that I trusted them, like it wasn't done. There was no clear accountability. So giving things away, changing my view of myself. And I had to create a vision for the future where. Where I was away and the company was still operating. That meant people made their own decisions, people owned their own plans, they followed through on things. I wasn't central at everything. That meant that I wasn't the biggest, coolest, like, whatever in the world. And that notion is interesting. Right. I think it's useful to start to look at how do you see yourself relative to the team, the company? And how do you see other people? Are they capable? Are they brilliant, Are they talented? Really enough that you could let them go? Or do you secretly think of yourself as better, smarter, more reliable? So there's a shift there in how you see yourself and how you see them, how you see other people, how you see yourself. They're deeply related. There's a time to stop and then to think about what's actually strategic and important versus what is. Like the fire that I'm putting out today and training other people to put out fires. Right. So I was busy, and I was uncomfortable not being busy. And I think you're like that too. Like, I'm a busy person. The people I work with are busy. The people who listen to watch our shows are busy. We're busy people and we, like, there's something about that that we like, right. So it's going to take a shift in how you see yourself and what you do. So sitting around, you could take up meditation. I meditate in some form every, every day, sometimes more than once a day. And you could do that, but it doesn't mean you're going to be like a chilled out monk. Like, dude, I still am kind of high energy and I'm over 60 now. So you have to start to deal with the fear that's running the show, the habits and the fear and all that kind of thing. And then looking at activities. Look, even as I wrap up this year, the first thing that I went to is how many days did I work and how many flights did I take and how many trips did I go and how many countries did I visit, how many clients did I work? I looked at activity metrics first versus results. Now I'm trading enough that I did that. Then I started to look at, okay, how many companies sold, how many companies do we start like what are the sort of graduation or the impact metrics? Right. Then I start to go to that piece of it. And I think that's the next shift is looking at the actual productivity and impact and then starting to notice where is your health affected? Right when do you have good night's sleep and bad night's sleep? Where have you gained weight? Where has your romantic life suffered? Where has your quality time with your kids suffered? Where have you found yourself texting, messaging on the phone when you're with your kids or your family, your husband, your wife, what is it that you're doing that's actually getting in the way of your quality of life, your stress, your that kind of thing. Then also look at what are the moments that are like fantastic where you're productive and in the zone where you're doing things that nobody else can or should do. So I think this is the key that's really useful. So I started to look at what did I need to give away in order to be able to leave my business. I spent a whole, almost a year, not quite a whole year training my company, the leaders on my team, my direct reports to take things away from me. And I just started asking variations on this question, what are you going to do when I'm gone? So I set a date, hey, I'm leaving in June. And that was like 10 months away roughly. And I said, what are you going to do in June when I'm not here, when I can't answer this, how will you handle this when I'm not here? What would you do if I wasn't here? So variations of that with an actual firm thing. So both of us had a push to something compelling, a deadline in the future where this had to happen. And I just asked the question, then I listened. I didn't have an exact answer. I wasn't angling for something, I was just looking for them to step up, to grapple with it. And sometimes I would give them feedback like, I don't agree or I think you should do this or whatever. But over time, more and more they said things that worked, right? So that's the key, is pulling back from what you should do and then starting to figure out how to automate or delegate to give away the kinds of things you shouldn't do. You can also be straight and let go of some things. So then I'm left with the most quality things, the creative things, the things that I love doing, that I enjoy, that I wouldn't trade away because I just so enjoy them. And then of course, I have some time to fill. So what did I add in? Well, after my trip, I went away in the end, just for a month. But a month for a business owner in North America is a big deal. It's not so much, maybe in other parts of the world, but I went away for a month and I came back and I started taking 90 minute lunches all the time. I started doing more quality travel when I traveled. I didn't rush out and rush back. I left a half a day or a day to do something else for myself. I started adding in classes or other kinds of things that did sort of like leveling up. It helped me be better, develop as a human being, develop new capacities and strengths and that kind of thing, all that stuff made a massive world of difference and then brought into all the other things I was doing. So I had to let go of things. But then I also had to fill in because I am probably like, you have a certain amount of energy need to fill my time with some busyness. Right? So let's just make it then quality busyness, not just busy busy. And I didn't solve then every problem with leaning into it being more busy. I started putting people on things. So I see a problem. Hey, I would ask this manager, would you look into this? I think this is right up your alley or I think this is in your world. Would you take a look at this? Or do you already know about this? Are you already working on it? Right? So that was the shift. So finding things to give up and then finding new Things to fill in my natural time. But I ended up with a lot better, you could say balanced kind of life perspective. And I started leveling up more as a human being. Now during those couple few years, we doubled. We doubled like we went through some periods of significant growth in that timeframe. And that's kind of priceless. So we want to look for where are you avoiding things with busyness? Where do you think you're being productive but you're actually just filling time? And what are the costs on you personally? And then you might also look at the costs in your organization. Where are people suppressed or not like leveling up themselves because you're too involved in everything. And then we want you. So those are four things to look at, right? Where are you avoiding things by being busy? Where are you focusing on activity rather than outcomes or productivity? What are the personal impacts on you and what are the impacts on your team and your company? So four things to look at. And then we want to start to keep a list of the kinds of things that you'd love to give up. So start making a list. Friday is a great day of the week to do this end of the week for most of us. So at some point on your Friday or whatever your end of week is, make a list. Think about what did I spend my time on this week that I would love to get rid of? And then keep another list. So this is your stop doing list the things that you want to begin to stop doing, even if you haven't figured it out yet. And then find some things that you'd love to do. So now you can take on something as you give something away and you'll box yourself into something that makes a bigger difference in the long run and give it time. So this will take time. This is a shift, like I said, in your identity, which then includes certain practices, rituals, that kind of thing. And it's going to take time. So you want to start to figure out where busy is broken for you. Replace that with some new quality kinds of things and start to retrain yourself out of that. It also really helps to bring your team in on the game to tell one on yourself, to say, hey, this is. I notice I'm doing this and I'm moving into this new area. Please partner with me, support me. I think it's better for both of us. Right? I love that. Anyway, love to see what you do with this. Go run with it. It's made a massive difference in my life. It's been, it's been a lot of years since I did that, let's see. Well, more than 15 years since I took on those practices and it made a massive difference and it's helped the the clients that have actually worked on it. It's made a massive difference for them too. So look forward to hearing what you do with it. Please let me know. Drop us a line. Let us know if you want to get in touch with us. If you want to know, if you want to get our growth assessment, if you want to join one of our workshops or know about our co that, go to scalingcoach.com like subscribe wherever this is right now. Share it with somebody else and do somebody else a solid. Do us a solid by sharing the show around. Thanks to my friend and mentor Vern Harnish, to our producers and my assistant for getting the show ready and out the door every week. We'll talk to you again next time. Keep scaling Are you thinking about how.

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